Netflix's Reed Hastings talks competition

Netflix and multichannel providers may be offering complementary services for now, but that could change as these services become more sophisticated, says Reed Hastings, Netflix's CEO. "In the long term, we're all competing for a time share of the consumer and wallet share," he said. "When they're at an $80 price point and we're at an $8 price point, it's not very direct. But certainly in terms of total budget or total time, it is a competitor."


What's Playing—and Where Netflix's Reed Hastings on who the competition is now, and who it will be in the future


Here are a couple of new buzzwords to keep an eye out for. 

MR. HASTINGS: Wi-Fi TV is one big revolution. The other one is fiber optics. You can take 100% of Netflix streaming at peak time, and it still fits in a single fiber optic.

MR. HASTINGS: The biggest competitor, over time, will be TV everywhere—cable, satellite, telco. There may be some direct competition, someone else doing $8 or $10-a-month service. But most likely the competition will be bundling or improving Internet online video as part of your cable or satellite package. And that's the TV-everywhere model.

MVPD [multichannel video-programming distributor; essentially, cable or satellite]